


Saturday Night At the Edge of the World

by Persiflage



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, Flash Fic, Future Fic, Original Character(s), Original Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-12
Updated: 2012-02-12
Packaged: 2017-10-31 00:30:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/337925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Persiflage/pseuds/Persiflage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A little end of the week reflection.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Saturday Night At the Edge of the World

**Author's Note:**

> Written for io9's Writing Prompt (11/2/12):   
> http://io9.com/5884246/concept-art-writing-prompt-saturday-night-at-the-edge-of-the-world

Aleppo and I climbed up to the Overhang, as we did every Saturday night, and settled ourselves on the sofa up there so that we might look over at the BioDome and all we had chosen to leave behind when we came Outside, a rotation and a half ago.

"It will serve to remind us of why we've chosen to live Outside rather than remain in the Dome," I'd told Aleppo when I'd suggested this ritual a few weeks after our departure from the Dome.

"Why we're forcing ourselves to live with erratic power supplies, limited provisions, and insufficient manpower, you mean," Aleppo had answered.

I'd raised an eyebrow at the sour note in his voice, and he'd apologised immediately.

"I'm sorry, Telar. Truly, I don't regret moving Outside, but it gets so frustrating when everything takes three times as long on the Outside than it did in the Dome."

I remembered now that I'd caressed his cheek, then kissed him before reassuring him that more people would join us in time. Fortunately I'd been proved right. We now had a thriving community which included a school for the youngsters, though what they learned Outside differed quite a bit from what they'd been taught in the Dome: lessons here dealt with crop management; animal husbandry; building, carpentry and engineering; how to harness the solar winds with which Earth-Now was blessed; and so on. Hardly anyone ever mentioned Earth-Past, the planet our forebears had left behind a century and a half ago.

I thought back to what I'd been taught as a child in the Dome: how Earth-Past had endured natural disasters of increasing magnitude throughout the twenty-first to twenty-third centuries: earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunami, not to mention the never-ending civil wars and bloody political revolutions. Then small groups of men and women across the globe had put forward the idea that humanity needed to learn from its past mistakes (there had been a Doomsday cult which blamed all the ecological disasters, as well as the wars, on humanity's mismanagement of the Earth's natural resources) and leave the Earth. Scientists and engineers had banded together, ignoring their nationalistic impulses and their national governments, and after a century they'd solved the problem of how to build a starship capable of carrying humanity to another planet. Astronomers, biologists and others had worked out how to locate a habitable planet, or to make a less hospitable one more habitable. The terraforming machines had been designed and tested in the desert areas of Earth-Past, and then, one day, the ship had been ready to leave. Not everyone had chosen to board the Endeavour – many had remained on Earth-Past for religious reasons, or because they'd been too scared to leave what they knew – but several thousands had set off for the stars. 

The BioDome had been set up to house everyone while the planet was terraformed, but somewhere along the way the settlers had decided to remain in the Dome, even after the Outside had become habitable. Of course, the BioDome hadn't been designed for continual use for one hundred and fifty years, nor had it been built to house the ever-expanding population of settlers, so the infrastructures had begun breaking down, and that was when I, Aleppo, and a couple of dozen others had all decided that it really was time to live Outside, as had been originally planned.

Over the past rotation and a half our numbers had been swelled considerably. We'd managed to recruit two dozen or so people during each lunar cycle: our energy supplies were no longer erratic, our provisions were ample, and we had enough people to get tasks carried out in a timely manner. I was convinced that by the end of the next rotation and a half, there would be more people living Outside than in the Dome, and that would be a good thing.

"Is it me, or are there fewer lights in the Dome this week?" asked Aleppo, bringing me back to the present.

I screwed up my eyes a little. "I think you might be right," I told him.

He nodded. "I think you've done a good job, Telar," he said after a moment's silence as we stared across at the orange-lit Dome, and the white stars above.

"Me?" I asked, wondering to which job he was referring.

"You," he confirmed, snaking an arm around my shoulders and pulling me closer. "You've persuaded so many people to come and live Outside. You've been unfailingly patient, determined, and committed. We wouldn't have come this far if it hadn't been for you."

"You're just saying that because you want some nookie," I teased.

"No I'm not," he said quietly insistent. "I mean, yes, I do want some nookie, now you mention it." He smirked. "But I do mean it – if it hadn't been for you, I don't think this community would've survived, let alone thrived."

I flushed. "I just did what I thought was right, what would be best for everyone," I told him. Then I shifted and kissed him deeply so that he wouldn't be thinking about offering me further compliments.

He sighed my name in pleasure as he surrendered to me, "Telar."

Saturday night at the edge of the world was always a good time.


End file.
